I'll make this feel like home
by EtherealWish
Summary: Set immediately after the end of the fifth movie. Slowly but surely their little unusual herd is growing. Shira has some news to share with Diego and the others, while Sid realizes he might finally get his happy ending with the lovely sloth he has met on their latest adventure.


_'Ello :) My first Ice Age fanfic._

 _I got kinda inspired after watching the newest movie (which I adored) and decided to somehow, further expand the ending scene. In my opinion the movie was good, it was funny, light-hearted, but also got a bit of drama which I love. The only thing I didn't like or I missed was the fact that Shira was so underused :( She's such an amazing character and I wish they would of given her and Diego more spotlight in this movie. I kinda hoped for an ending where it was revealed they were going to be parents, after all both of them expressed desire to become, but alas, it never came…..sooooo…I wrote this :) Also, I'm apologizing for any grammar mistakes or misspelled words, as English isn't my native language._

 _Hope ya like it! :)_

* * *

Ellie's green eyes shone with tears of happiness as she watched the scene in front of her. Firstly, they somehow – again – managed to survive the worst, beat the cruel fate and win in the end despite the odds this time certainly not being in their favor. She could deal with a meltdown, dinosaurs roaming around freely and/or even an earthquake so strong it divided their herd. But an oncoming asteroid of doom was a completely another thing and they were more than lucky to be alive this time.

She bashfully wiped her tears with her trunk. And now her little girl, her only baby, had gotten married and started her own life with a mammoth who had more than proven himself to be suitable for her baby girl.

Although at first there were some arguments coming from her and mainly Manny, Julian has truly become a part of their family in the last few days.

Peaches couldn't have gotten a better mate for life. A funny, charming, sometimes ridiculously clumsy mammoth had managed to thaw even the hardest heart of the herd – Peaches' dad. Manny found it difficult to find anyone who Peaches had dated suitable, and frankly, Ellie had even started to worry that poor Julian would never get the approval from her husband.

She could only thank her ancestors the events of the past few days had managed to change that.

"She looks so happy." She sniffed as she let her gaze fall upon the newlyweds. A familiar large and tall presence slowly walked up to her and she leaned into him. "Remember when we used to be like them?"

Returning the embrace, he wrapped his trunk around hers "Have we ever stopped being?"

She giggled and closed her eyes enjoying the sweet caress of a romantic evening. Her eyes still firmly fixed on her daughter and son-in-law who burst into laughing fit at something Julian had said. Peaches looked the happiest she'd ever been.

"If she's happy now, just imagine how she's gonna be like when they have their first child." She sighed dreamily, remembering fondly how adorable her baby girl had looked when she was little. A small, giggly ball of fluff, with the most stunning eyes she had ever seen.

Her husband's eyes widened and she could feel panic rising inside him at the suggestion of them having a grandchild. "Let's not get there yet." Manny quickly stammered. He had barely accepted Julian into his family, barely let them get married…any talk about his possible grandchild only triggered his anxiety.

Ellie laughed quietly and took hold of his trunk, calming him down "Relax. It was just a random though that crossed my mind." She smiled "besides, I talked with Peaches about this a few days ago, and she told me they had discussed the issue of having kids and both of them agreed to wait at least a few more years."

As she said that she could see him visibly relax "So you don't need to worry, you're not going to become a grandpa just yet."

"Good." He sighed "Honestly, I'm too young to become one."

Ellie raised an eyebrow "Right."

"What?"

"Nothing." She lightly bumped him "I just think you'd make a very doting grandpa. A bit more on overprotective side, but that's to be expected from you."

Manny looked at his wife but said nothing. The thing was, it was still incredibly difficult to see his baby daughter growing up into a clever and beautiful young woman right in front of his eyes. It almost felt like yesterday she was still little, a newborn learning to walk on her wobbly feet, and now, fast forward a few years, she's a young happy woman at her own wedding.

A father's pride knows no limit and Manny definitely realized that.

His thoughts were interrupted by a short shriek followed with childish laughter. The two mammoths looked at the source of the noise and spotted their two tiger friends entertaining a group of small kids by telling them stories of their past adventures. Both sabers appeared to be more than delighted to be finally accepted by kids, having fun with them as if they were their own pride and joy.

"To be honest some of them are a bit farfetched." Manny snorted as he watched Diego mime something with his paws with a small group of kids awing at gasping every time he did a dramatic pause. After some time, Shira let him have the spotlight in storytelling. After all she had only been in this herd for a few years. She had missed on so many incredible adventures with the guys, but was intrigued to know every little detail. How they met each other, how they decided to stay together and so on.

One thing was for sure. They were a strange family.

"Oh let them have it." Ellie said, noticing the saber couple "The kids finally no longer appear to be scared of them. That's a big step for them if you ask me."

A small brown rabbit shyly asked Diego about his adventure with the dinosaurs to which he more than happily obliged to tell, showing him exactly how he had dodged being attacked, and even worse, eaten in the dino land. Shira looked from the little rabbit to her husband and smiled warmly, blue eyes glowing with content.

There was so much she wanted to say but decided to tell later. Now she could enjoy watching the scene of her mate laughing with kids and she couldn't help but giggle at the thought of it foreshadowing their very near future.

"You know how hurt Shira was when children ran away from them screaming." Ellie sighed, remembering. "She loves kids."

"It's just funny seeing Diego with kids." Manny snorted "I've never thought of him to be a parent material kind of a guy."

"That just shows how little you know about your best friend." Ellie gently flickered him with her trunk. "Shira told me numerous times they had discussed having kids, but the fear of their kids never being accepted by others held them back." She sighed and looked at her husband "They don't want them to be outcasts. I understand them. It hurts, but I do." She commented sadly. "Hopefully things change now. Everyone deserves happiness in their lives."

Manny looked at Ellie and gently took hold of her trunk "That I agree-"

"Hey guys!" a high pitched voice interrupted whatever Manny wanted to say to Ellie. He sighed and she couldn't help but chuckle a bit. "Guys, guys, guys, guys, guys-"

"Yes Sid?" Manny turned around and looked down at the clumsy, hyperactive sloth who was practically bouncing on his legs. Manny's eyes widened after he took a good look and noticed another person who was holding Sid's paw and practically been dragged around, but seemed to not mind. "What?"

"Manny this is Brooke!" Sid smiled widely and gently pushed the female sloth forward to show his friend that yes, she was indeed real, if he had any possible doubts whatsoever. Smiling softly she raised her paw to greet her new friends, her long, lovely locks waving softly in the wind.

"But s-she's-" the mammoth stammered confused. The last time he saw her, she and her friends had turned grey and old, the magic of Geotopia finally broken for good. So seeing her now, with her young, girlish face was more than a shock.

"She's young!" the sloth nodded "Again!" he grabbed her paw and stood tall. "And she's joining our herd!"

Manny blinked and was about to pull him aside to talk to the sloth, perhaps put a bit of common sense into him, after all no one can just join it out of sheer boredom, but Ellie jumped in, her mouth open in a wide smile. "That's wonderful Sid!" She smiled and nudged Manny, silently hoping the mammoth would take the hint. "Isn't it dear?"

The male mammoth looked at his wife and even though she appeared all calm and happy on the outside, he knew full well she was warning him to not ruin Sid's chance of happiness with his overprotective trait, or else he would meet her wrath.

"Uhh…," He began, hesitating, looking from his wife to the pair of sloths in front of him who were looking expectantly "…sure. Yeah that's good, that's great Sid." He stammered "I'm happy for you."

Sid's smile grew "Thanks Manny!" he bolted forward and wrapped arms around his friend's trunk "I knew you would like her."

Manny, despite being annoyed over the fact that Sid's arms were around his trunk opened his mouth to reply, but Ellie beat him to it. "I hope you don't mind me asking," she began, addressing the female sloth, who clamped her paws in front of her, looking at the mammoth with sincere interest "but the last time we saw you, you didn't look so young. What happened?"

"I don't mind it at all!" she smiled "It was by pure accident. Apparently a piece of the magic gem was left behind, so it could return our youth back to us."

"But how?" the mammoth asked and looked at his wife who shrugged, obviously sharing his confusion. "I thought we got rid of everything."

"Obviously not," Sid quickly jumped in, waving with paw "Now as much as I'd love to continue this chit-chat, why don't _we_ let _me_ make a campfire," he began and took Brooke's paw in his "and make a warm after-wedding-welcome-to-the-herd-party for Brooke?"

"A campfire?" The female sloth asked slowly. Just what was he talking about?

Sid laughed at which Manny rolled eyes "You'll love it!"

* * *

Sometime later in the night, as the sun's warm rays left the sky for the day and were replaced with luminous full moon and the sky full of stars, the unusual herd crowded around the small campfire Sid had created. The wedding party had long been over, and the guests, excluding the members of their herd all left and went back to their respective homes and business.

To say Brooke was amazed at Sid's ability to summon fire from nothing but sticks and stones was an understanding. What Sid found flattering, others found amusing, but said nothing.

Jualian laughed at the antics of the small opossum brothers and nearly spilled his drink all over them when they scurried past him on the nearby branch.

"To Peaches and Julian!" Manny suddenly raised his coconut cup filled with juice made of smashed berries with others soon following. Julian caught his smile and with a pure delight found out it was a sincere one. After months of trying to win Manny's approval he had seemingly finally managed to crawl into his heart. In his words, it felt awesome.

Peaches felt herself blush. She smiled gently at her dad who was looking back at her. Even though she was angry and furious with her parents for what they did to Julian and tried to tear her relationship apart, she had forgiven them. After all she knew it probably wasn't easy, watching their only daughter get married off to someone. One day she'd understand the feeling completely, as she always wanted to have a big family.

She giggled and her eyes travelled to the new sloth couple. Although they had known each other only for a few days and had been officially dating for only a few hours they seemed completely enamoured with each other "To uncle Sid and Brooke." She raised her own cup "May you finally find happiness."

Sid smiled gratefully at his 'niece'. He didn't care if she was different species. The moment she was born, she had him completely wrapped around her trunk.

After her proposal of a toast, hey all raised their juice cups and downed them.

"Man I remember when it was just the three of us." Sid began and looked at Diego and Manny. "and of course Pinky…sometimes I wonder how is he…" he travelled off more to himself than to anyone else." But look at us now. There's like ten of us now."

Ellie nodded joyfully "Sometimes it seems like our herd is getting bigger and bigger each day."

Shira, who was looking down at her paws, gently looked up in front of her at the older female mammoth "Then I hope we have place for one or two more." She smiled, eyes sparkling as she turned to look at Diego who was settled next to her, staring at her with confusion written all over his face "Because in a few months it's about to get even bigger."

The tigress could hear short gasps of surprise in the background, no doubt coming from the female mammoths, but she only had eyes for her mate.

She silently waited for his reaction as the realization of her words finally sunk in and his face brightened immediately "You're kidding."

The tigress laughed gently at her mate's reaction "No I'm not. I've been meaning to tell you for some time now."

"Seriously?" he asked again enthusiastically, just in case if his usually good ears had betrayed him.

She nodded joyfully and he responded eagerly with nuzzling his forehead against hers. This was perfect. Both of them wanted to have a litter of their own, but the apprehension for their safety and well being held them back. So to finally realize they were in fact expecting, seemed so surreal but incredible and Shira couldn't help but let a small tear escape her eye. That was a whole new rodeo for both of them, but they were ready for anything and everything.

"W-What?" Sid eyed them confusedly, joined by the opossum brothers "I don't understand, why is the herd expanding?"

"It means," Shira said softly "that Diego and I are having a cub. Or cubs, who knows." She smiled at Diego imagining their litter of small bundles of fur and joy.

"Congrats guys!" Ellie squealed in delight and stood up to congratulate her fellow herd mates and friends "This is fantastic! Oh Shira I'm so happy for you!"

"Oh my…" Sid's eyes widened as the realization hit him. He turned to look at Brooke, but found her already congratulating the tiger couple. Not wasting any more time, he quickly hurried to his long time tiger pal and gently punched him in the side gaining his attention to congratulate him on his foreboding fatherhood, "So I take it that I'll be taking on the job as a babysitter again!"

Diego chuckled "Most certainly not Sid."

The sloth had kind intentions but after so many years of knowing him and so many failed attempts at raising kids (or just taking care of them for the time being) he kinda knew better than that and approached his request with caution.

"Well, I'd be lying if I said I wasn't surprised," the voice of the male mammoth brought the tiger back from his thoughts.

"To be honest, I wasn't expecting it either." Diego admitted chuckling. "Not so fast."

Manny smiled, brown eyes filled with warmth and happiness for his friend "Congratulations daddy."

"Thanks Manny." The tiger replied sincerely.

"Today's been the best day ever!" Peaches shouted excitedly and both males looked at her. She was standing next to her mother and Shira, looking as giddy as ever. "First I got married, had the best wedding party, now uncle Sid's finally found somebody who loves him and uncle Diego and Shira are having cubs!"

Brooke blushed and smiled at the young mammoth, silently promising her that she would do just that. Kept Sid happy and loved. For what it seemed like eternity she had waited for someone to come around and shake her world like never before. And Sid had done just that. The moment she laid her eyes on him she knew she wanted to follow him everywhere.

Being around this strange, seemingly never ending herd she soon realized that others often loved to pick on the sloth, but it was nothing more than a friendly banter. She knew full well he wasn't perfect, nobody was perfect, but from what she heard about him from the mammoths he had a heart made of gold and that was the most important thing to her. She was cursed with eternal youth on the outside, her soul might be old even if she didn't show that, but he didn't care.

In his eyes she was perfect.

Gently she fixed one of the flowers on her head and watched as her new mate cheerfully talked with the mammoth she had gotten to know as Manny and Diego whose green eyes shone from excitement at the news he had received a mere moment before.

Brooke was sincerely happy for him. She didn't know him that well, they had only talked a few times since the meeting, but he seemed absolutely delighted. Someday she'd love to have a family of her own. A baby sloth or two and her life would be utterly perfect.

But for now she was totally content with the way her life unfolded.

She didn't just get a whole new bunch of friends, a lovely mate and joined a herd.

She got a family.


End file.
